Overview
- Researchers recorded EEG as 32 medication-withdrawn adults with ADHD and 31 neurotypical adults performed a sustained-attention task, reporting the findings in the Journal of Neuroscience.
- Adults with ADHD showed a higher density of brief, localized slow-wave activity during wakefulness, a phenomenon described as local sleep.
- Increased slow-wave density aligned with more omission and commission errors, slower and more variable reaction times, greater mind wandering and mind blanking, and higher sleepiness ratings.
- Statistical mediation analyses indicated that differences in wake slow-wave density explained the link between ADHD diagnosis and poorer task performance.
- The team highlights a potential next step to test whether nighttime auditory stimulation that enhances deep-sleep slow waves could reduce next-day local-sleep intrusions as a non-drug option.